


carpe diem

by virginianwolfsnake



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV), A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: F/F, I've decided b&b aren't the only lion-tamers, young georgina is careful, young josephine is reckless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26016604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virginianwolfsnake/pseuds/virginianwolfsnake
Summary: georgina learns that some risks are worth taking.
Relationships: Josephine Anwhistle/Georgina Orwell
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	carpe diem

Georgina Orwell is not scared of very much. Or, more accurately; she has never been one to be scared of things that wouldn’t scare any other sensible person. Of course she is scared of drowning, and of fire, and yes, she is scared of the deep water, but these are perfectly rational. Fear exists and has been passed down through evolution as a safety mechanism, and while it is occasionally useful to overcome if it is unfounded — one of the new recruits, for instance, is afraid of moths — it should be maintained if it stops you from meeting an untimely end. 

Josephine, by comparison, is on one hand the most electric, fearless, fascinating person that Georgina has ever met, but on the other, Georgina thinks she might be a madwoman. She laughs her way through her life, dancing just at the edge of death all of the time, taking a perverse kind of joy in putting herself in what appear to be ridiculously perilous situations, and reveling in the challenge of getting herself out of them again. She has wrestled alligators, flown planes without a valid license, skydived, walked on tight beams across jagged rocks, and she barely has any reason for any of it, except that it’s  _ exciting _ . 

Georgina doesn’t care much about being brave (that is an unfashionable thing to say in front of her associates) but she does think quite passionately that there is a difference between being brave and being simply foolhardy, and she definitely doesn’t want to be the latter. Georgina’s own risks are based on careful calculation and contingency planning — not on blind, stupid  _ faith _ . 

It is perfectly, undeniably rational to be afraid of a pack of enormous lions, and Georgina refuses to feel ashamed of that. She has, as such, categorically refused to take part in this training session unarmed, so she carries with her a huge whip — which she cannot be sure she would definitely know how to use, if it came to it — and a long, curved knife in her other hand. Neither of these might be a match for the enormous felines if they decide to turn on her, but it is always worthwhile to have some sort of backup plan.

The lions growl lowly as she enters, seemingly unimpressed and distinctly unthreatened by her measly weapons. 

“They can sense that you’re afraid of them!” Josephine admonishes, as two of the predators give her the feline equivalent of a dirty look. “Come closer, G. And leave that knife out of it.”

“Absolutely  _ not _ ,” Georgina replies, jolting backward when one of them gets up to tentatively step towards her. 

“They  _ are _ trained.” By now, Josephine is sick of watching her, so she strides over, far too close to the snout of one of these great beasts, weaving past with her shoulders back and her head high as though she is invincible. 

Georgina’s eyes narrow.  _ Trained _ could mean any number of things and it would make her feel substantially better if she could somehow attach a numerical value to it. “How trained?”

“Well, almost all the way,” Josephine replies lightly, blissfully unaware that this does not even begin to answer her question. Prying the offending weapon from her grip, despite her complaints, she then strides over to the entrance of the enclosure and posts it out through the bars as if into a letterbox. Georgina feels as though she has just signed her own death warrant; the few seconds where Josephine’s back is turned are some of the worst of her life. 

“ _ Almost? _ ” she repeats, barely feeling able to move in case she is pounced upon and ripped to pieces. 

“Well, why else would we be here?” Josephine laughs. “Come on; you can keep the whip if it makes you feel better. But I will show you how to speak to them and then you will realise that you don’t need it.”

By now, Georgina is beginning to wonder how she has found herself in this situation at all and whether the fact that she is here is indicative of a serious flaw in her judgement. The private truth is that she is so begrudgingly impressed by Josephine that this is not the first ridiculous predicament she has found herself in in an effort to spend a few more hours with her. For better or for worse, Georgina has never been able to resist someone who is bold, and Josephine may in fact be the boldest person in the world. 

While she is still gathering her courage to actually move, Josephine makes an impatient noise and takes her by the wrist to jolt her into action, dragging her forward so that she has to scurry along. Ripping her arm free, Georgina shoots her a horrified look (once she has ascertained that the lions aren’t about to rip her throat out first). “You’re a fool, J!”

“Perhaps,” Josephine shrugs, walking backwards and making a beckoning motion with her hands for the younger woman to follow along with her, further into the lion’s den.  _ What is it they say about the lion’s den? _ “But  _ you _ are too uptight, G.”

Georgina scoffs. “Is it uptight to be concerned with staying alive?”

“It  _ is _ when it prevents you from doing something you want to do, especially when that thing is quite safe.” She pauses and waits for Georgina to catch up with her, before leaping onto a rock behind her and holding out a hand for her to climb up too, which she does with significantly less grace. “Which I promise that it is.”

_ Based on what?  _ Georgina wants to ask, but instead she just regards the lions circling them and focuses on slowing the hammering of her heart instead. Of course, Josephine has no way of knowing that she doesn’t  _ want  _ to do this at all. She would like to be anywhere but here — but ideally somewhere with Josephine in tow. This firebomb of a woman makes her feel more alive than she ever has in her life, but she would entirely rather she could have access to that wild feeling without actually being in danger of losing her life at the same time. 

She is so concerned with her environment that it takes her much longer than normal to recognise what exactly Josephine has said to her. “Are you calling me a coward?”

“No — you’re here now, aren’t you? I’m calling you over-cautious. You have to think of every potential consequence before you do anything at all. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that you put your affairs in order before you entered the enclosure.”

Losing her sense of humour rapidly here in this horrible dangerous cage, and being insulted at the same time, Georgina is nearly ready to tell her to shut her mouth before she knocks the teeth out of it. But it appears that the lions are getting restless, and before she has the chance, one of them is coming up too close and growling and lurching forward on its hind legs to place itself frighteningly close to its supposed trainers. Georgina’s instinct ( _ self-preservation _ , she reminds herself,  _ is  _ **_not_ ** _ a weakness _ ) compels her to jump backwards, but Josephine foresees the urge within her and wraps an arm around her shoulders for the briefest of moments to stop her. Afterward, she stands tall and straight and claps her hands together, staring down at this huge animal and shooing it away with her palm, as if it is nothing more than a domestic cat. 

Once they are back under some sort of control, Josephine whistles to instruct them to undertake their first task. This only entails walking to the far side of their enclosure; a simple thing, but watching these fearsome creatures bow to her iron will is quite something. 

“Now that we have established that you don’t like lions,” Josephine says, and Georgina cannot think of any way to defend herself from that accusation. “Will you tell me the reason you have insisted on joining me today?”

Her stomach lurches and her heart hammers away in her chest in a way that is not too dissimilar to the way it did when the lion came toward them. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Josephine looks openly amused. “Alright.” She whistles again, in a different pattern, for the future feline detectives to cross in formation to the other side. She looks unbearably smug — and beautiful, too, Georgina can’t help but think. “ _ Careful Georgina _ ; that’s what they’ll call you. Perhaps  _ Cautious George _ , instead of curious?” 

“ _ Dead Josephine _ , they’ll call you, if you aren’t a little more careful yourself.” Georgina grumbles. 

Laughing and shaking her head, Josephine looks skyward in exasperation. “Honestly, Georgina,” she says. “Ask yourself: what is the worst that could happen?”

If this comment is supposed to relate to lion-taming — or any of the other foolish things Josephine has done recently — it is a stupid one, but Georgina is no longer thinking only about the lions. Suddenly, from the look in her fellow volunteer’s eyes, she wonders if Josephine isn’t either. 

So lost in her thoughts, she barely registers it when Josephine whistles a new command so that the lions begin searching for the hidden items around their enclosure, working quite naturally as a team. Knowing that this will take them a while, Josephine takes a seat on top of this rock, as if it is the most natural thing in the world to just sit here so calmly with a pack of half-trained predators.

“ _ Cautious George? _ ” she needles, with a cheeky grin, squinting up at her as the sunlight gets in her eyes. “Don’t you want to sit down? They are occupied now, so there is n —”

Before she can continue to mock, or finish her sentence, Georgina decides that some risks are worth taking after all, even in the absence of a cast-iron contingency plan. Crouching low, she grasps this reckless, stupid, fantastic woman by her pointed chin and presses a precipitous kiss to her lips; the kind she thinks Josephine might approve of. 

  
  



End file.
